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Saturday, September 29, 2012

A discussion on Mutual funds – the types of MF’s and how to select the MF
for investing

Mutual funds are a
very good way to start your investment journey and I recommend it to everyone
who is looking at becoming rich. This session was aimed at sharing with my MBA
students the logic used behind selecting the right MF - many of my students will become Wealth
managers next year and this would be
useful learning for them in their jobs (last year appx. 200 students from my
institute joined the WM industry and this year I believe it will be similar numbers).

Post the quiz, we logged on to www.moneycontrol.com and studied the various
types of MF’s available in the Indian market – we saw the details of a few mutual
funds – we looked at where they have invested currently, what is their relative
performance, who is the fund manager etc and discussed how to evaluate the mutual
fund and which fund to invest in.

So the class was one half quiz and one half browsing the
internet portal on MF’s .

I would recommend that you too browse www.moneycontrol.com and look through
the various types of mutual funds available and drill down into a few funds to
look at detailed data on their performance and the portfolio that they hold.

The key question in your mind would be “how do I select that
particular mutual fund where I can invest and get good returns”. My session ppt does not
have much content on that as it was a freewheeling discussion. However, my forthcoming book has a lot of
content on the various types of MF’s available in the Indian market and how
does one select that particular MF where you can invest in.

It obviously depends on your investment objective and
broadly the objectives could be described in the following scenarios:

•Growth objective – “I want to invest
Rs 10,000 today and after five years take back Rs 25,000 and I want this to be
tax free”. The funds that try to meet these objectives invest in equities –
hence they are called Equity funds

•Income objective – “I am retiring next
year and would get a gratuity of Rs 30 lacs - I want to invest it such that my
gratuity is preserved and I get a monthly income better than a post office
deposit interest”. The funds that try to meet these objectives typically
invest in debt instruments issued by government, banks, corporate and financial
institutions - hence they are called Fixed income funds or debt funds.

•A combination of growth and fixed income –
“I have received my annual bonus of Rs 10 lacs just now – I want to invest
it such that in 5 years it becomes 15-18 lacs plus I get a payoff of Rs. 60,000
per annum for my vacation out of this fund”. The funds that try to meet
these objectives typically invest in both equities and debt instruments – these
funds are called Balanced funds.

•Short term investments – “I have Rs
100,000 with me for the next three months – it is meant for my child’s school
admission in May and I need to park it somewhere till then – I would like to
have a better return than a savings bank account”.The funds that try to
meet these objectives typically invest in short term debt instruments like
interbank money markets – hence these are called Money market funds.

•Tax saving – “I want to reduce my tax
out go and is there some place I can invest beyond PPF and Post office
schemes?”. The funds that offer tax rebates are called Equity linked
saving schemes (ELSS), - these funds invest in equities and typically have
a three year lock-in period.

So you have to start with your investment objectives and then select that particular mutual fund
where you can invest and reach your objectives?

There is a whole industry out there that makes selecting and
recommending Mutual funds look very difficult and complex – but that is not
really true. One can easily select which MF to invest.

My forthcoming book has more than enough content on “how to
select the right MF” – it is really not that difficult and anyone can do it.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A discussion on risks that we face and how does the wealth management
industry quantify the risk taking ability of a customer?

Prior to this session, the students had prepared and sent me
a 20 year cash flow plan for an MBA couple - this was done in groups. I had picked
a few of these cash flow plans – and specific groups got a chance to present
their plans and as a class we critiqued the work. I am sharing one of the
better plans in this blog –with permission from the students who made this. Here is the link https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtBnUnyierp7dExnVkVRZV9LVE1MMGhrcmNpUXAxZFE

The key message that I wanted to convey was that anyone of
my MBA students can become rich in the next 10-15 years - with smart investing;
they can reach a stage where they “do not have to work for money”. This is a mindset change – it does not come
easily as most of us are from middle class back grounds and this 20 year
financial plan proves to the students that they can also become rich – all they
need to know is how to invest smartly.

This template can be used by my other readers as well –
anyone can and should make a 20 year financial plan for himself/ herself –as I
had said in my first session, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Here is a small paragraph from my
upcoming book (which is with my publishers right now) that explains this better
-“As you plan for the next 20 years, you
will get more clarity in your mind on your way forward – this financial
planning exercise compels you to find a strategy to achieve your dreams – you
will figure out the factors that are under your control that will help you
achieve your dreams. You will meet and befriend people who will help you get
closer to what you want. You will eventually reach your dreams earlier than
your plans – the world will call it luck – but you will know that it is not
just luck – subconsciously, you have been working on achieving your dreams and
you have succeeded. Planning for long term and achieving will become a habit -
a lifelong quest - and you will surely succeed in whatever you do.”

The second half of the session (90
mins) was used to talk about Risk as a concept. We addressed two issues here –

What are the types of risks and how
does one mitigate these risks - Here we discussed the kind of risks
that we face as individuals – theft of our valuables, an
accident, a heart attack, sudden death, unplanned hospitalisation, a
customer suing a doctor for a mistaken surgery etc etc. We classified these
risks, and discussed approaches to mitigating them. The message was that
each one of us needs to be aware of the risks we face and that we must
figure out ways of mitigating them.

What is your risk taking ability and
how do I link it to your asset allocation? -Each one of us has a psychological risk
tolerance level – some of us are Ok with higher risks and some of us are
not. Plus the risk taking capacity is also defined by how much financial
assets you have amassed – someone with 100 lacs assets can afford to risk
Rs 10,000 in King fisher airlines stock right now – but someone with Rs
10,000 assets, should not think of taking that kind of risk with that
stock. Needless to say, the kind of investments we should make should be
in sync with both these factors –the psychological tolerance to risk and
the financial capability to take risks – I shared with the class, how the
wealth management industry does this –

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

In any journey, if we do not define our destination, we will
find it difficult to reach it.

Similiarly, in the wealth journey, we all need to define the
term “rich” – otherwise we will not reach it. The reason why many people do not
reach the “rich” stage is that their definition of rich is not a very clear cut
definition.

The class discussed a few common definitions of the term “rich”
(two of which are in the ppt) – obviously everyone has a different take of this
term - we then agreed that any goal needs to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable,
Realistic and Time bound (SMART goal) – and so the definition of “rich” also
needed to be SMART.

I then introduced them
to the definition by Robert Kiyosaki in his book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. We went
one level deeper and discussed the quantification of this term “rich” based on
this definition. In order to quantify this definition, we discussed the case of
an MBA couple (that my students can relate to) and tried to make a 20 year
financial plan for them – this 20 year financial plan is not finalised yet as
the students are supposed to work on it over the week and so I will share one
or two of the finalised plans in my next week’s notes.

This was the key issue we discussed for 2 hours of the three
hour session.

The last hour was devoted to an over view of the wealth
management industry in India. Here we discussed the market estimates, the key
players, the kind of business models and the current challenges that the wealth
managers face today.

Monday, September 10, 2012

As a faculty, I have learnt to take life trimester by trimester. This is my eighth trimester as a faculty and just like the prior seven trimesters, I am looking forward to the starting of the new session. This trimester is also special as I am teaching Wealth Management. This subject is close to my heart. I learnt it by actually doing it. It comes to me naturally.I know that I am good at it and I know that my students too like these sessions.

Even though the course is designed to prepare students for a career in Wealth management, I am also teaching them “how to become rich”. After all as MBA students, they are all a privileged lot - the top 1% of the population in their age group in India. They will have many opportunities post their MBA and I surely think each one should become a High Net worth Individual (HNI) over the next 10 years. That is what I am aiming to teach – “How to become rich”.

This trimester I intend to put my content on my blog with every session – most probably every Thursday. The blog will carry the key points discussed and there will be a link to the ppt that I used in the session. This is for those who are not in the campus and still want to follow the sessions.

For those who are in the campus but are not part of my class, you are welcome to join us. I have sessions in Kengeri campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 till 1 pm and in the city campus on Wednesdays from (I think) 8.30 am till 11.30 am.

I hope that this works for you and that you will be a co traveller with me in the wealth journey.

I am interested to find out your feedback on the content – whether you agree with what I am saying or not -So please do pen your comments on my blog or you can send me a message through FB or gmail. Also request that you register your mail id on my blog –it is on the right hand side -a box called "follow by email" - that way my updates will reach you automatically every week.